Grace June 2015 -...
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Grace Notes June 2015 Grace Episcopal Church 106 Lowell St. Manchester, NH
Transcript of Grace June 2015 -...
Grace Notes
June 2015
Grace Episcopal Church 106 Lowell St.
Manchester, NH
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From the Rector From the Rector Rev. Dr. Marjorie GerbrachtRev. Dr. Marjorie Gerbracht--StagnaroStagnaro
“The best place to find God is in a garden. You can dig for him there.” George Bernard Shaw
I was raised by a holy gardener, my maternal grandmother, June Garfield Schaefer. My parents would often drop me at her home on the weekends. She would rise early on a Saturday morning, walk into the guest room where I slept, open the blinds, let the sunshine in, then shout out, “This is the day the Lord has made. Let us re-joice and be glad in it.” We’d have breakfast together that always included grits (Gram spent her summers in Savannah), then head out for a day in the garden. I weeded and planted, while she dele-gated and sipped an iced tea or, on an especially hot afternoon day, an iced cold beer. I loved that time in the soil, digging away, talk-ing sometimes. Other times both of just sitting quietly, smelling the honeysuckle and hearing the Long Island Railroad trains clatter along behind her fence. I loved another holy gardener - the Reverend Joan Barr Smith. Our beloved deacon, who died just a short time ago, was an avid gardener. One of her greatest loves was planting flowers, some-times far too many according to her husband Wayne, then sitting on her front porch waiting for them to grow. I’m looking forward to time this summer on Joan’s front porch, seeing how her garden continues to grow. Christine Sine is a holy gardener. On her website Godspace Chris-tine explains, “I am a passionate organic gardener; in the spring my front porch sprouts an assortment of vegetables. I am also pas-sionate about helping Christians connect their faith and spiritual discipline to their everyday life. Christianity is not meant to be a Sunday only faith. It is meant to impact everything we do and are.” In memory of June and Joan I am spending more and more time in my garden. I kneel in a position of prayer and dig. I pull weeds and roots from the earth. While I do this I root out sadness and anger, think on my sins, wonder how I can clear a path for growth.
Parishioner Rodney Padmore reminded me how Christ was mistak-en for a gardener by Mary Magdalene in the gospel of John. Ini-tially, it’s easy to think Mary taking Jesus was a gardener was an odd mistake.
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I’ve often wondered: why didn’t Mary think Jesus was gravedigger, a graveyard guard, or just a random passerby? But Mary was closer on point than we often think. Jesus was a gar-dener, every day of his life. He planted God’s word everywhere he went. Christ tended to the garden of his disciples every day. Jesus pulled out weeds of injustice, stereotypes, and cruelty from the earth. He understood tending the soil of God’s kingdom wasn’t Sabbath work, but every day work. The most recent Pew Institute study, released on May 12, 2015 tells us that the landscape of American faith has changed dramatically. There is a drop in Christian affiliation, not just among young people, but among all ages. Our denomination and other Protestant denomi-nations are experiencing a drop in attendance and faithfulness. What to do? What to do? The most important things to do? Keep singing the Lord’s song! Keep digging in God’s garden. Keep being an ever present image of love and faith. Invite friends to church. Don’t be afraid to talk about your faith with others. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength. Think on ways this parish can plant God’s love in our city and state. May we spend more time on our knees -- in the garden, in prayer, before a child to help them tie their shoe, in service to others -- as the gardening season begins and continues. In love, Marjorie + The Grace Church Prayer Ministry maintains a confi-dential Prayer request list that we pray for on a daily basis in the privacy of our own homes. We keep re-quests on the list for up to 2 months, yet can keep them on longer at someone's request. This is a list that is cir-culated among the parishioners who make up the Pray-er Ministry. If you would like to place someone on our list, please contact: Darby Thomas at [email protected].
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Go in Peace Good and Faithful Servant,
Joan It was both an honor and a gift to serve on the altar for Deacon Joan’s funeral. And see-ing so many of you, my Grace Church family was a treat that made me feel like I had come home. In a sense we walked through the darkness of Holy Week to-gether that day and into the light of Resurrection. How glorious is that! Joan was a dear friend to me as she was to all of us. She had a special gift for pastoral ministry that was grounded in her passion to be about the servant ministry of Christ. Joan also held a deep reverence for the diaconal ministry of the Eucharistic table. Joan was a mentor who was always open to spending hours listening to my joys as well as the tough parts of my dea-conate formation and always shared stories of her own ex-periences that served to bring us together in the special journey we shared. I will miss those reassuring and mean-ingful conversations but know Joan will continue to be a constant presence and guide in my diaconal process and in the Servant Christ ministry we both hold so close to our hearts. I am most happy to tell you that it is with this deep sense of devotion to the servant ministry of Christ I will be ap-plying for candidacy to the vocational diaconate this month. My deepest gratitude for all your love and prayers, Maryan Davis (postulant to the diaconate)
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Did you know that local fresh foods are grown and sold by farmers through Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success (ORIS)?
The four farm stands run during
June through the Fall. Also, ORIS farmers sell at the Man-
chester Farmer's Market on Thursdays that is in the parking lot right outside our
church! We pass this on to all so we can support both our
hardworking refugees and im-migrants as well as fresh pro-duce.
Take note of the following farm stands which will run June
through September (with a possible extension into October, weather permitting)
Mondays 2 – 5 PM: Manchester Community Health Center
(145 Hollis Street)
Tuesdays 3 – 6 PM: Kalivas Park (Lake Avenue/Spruce
Street/Chestnut Street) featuring Common Earth Farms
Wednesdays 3 – 6:30 PM: Lafayette Park (92 Amory
Street)
Saturdays 9 AM – Noon: JFK Coliseum parking lot (303
Beech Street)
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.MILESTONES Happy Birthday to the following June birthdays celebrants!
3 Elise Annunciata 20 Julie Turner 4 Julia DiStefano 21 Stephen Merrill 5 Akur Leek 22 Mary Atwell 8 Dahlia Costley 23 Kevin von Braun 9 Samuel Richmond 25 Alexia Wallace 11 Lissa Foote 26 Mark Cleveland Nicholas Girgus 28 Ken Ealy Kjellander 13 Jonathan Lee Janet Ferry David Murray 29 Gray Chynoweth 15 Arthur Douglas Jackson Dube 19 Carol Boyer 30 Pauline Bell Watch over thy children, O Lord, as their days increase; bless and
guide them wherever they may be. Strengthen them when they stand;
comfort them when discouraged or sorrowful; raise them up if they
fall; and in their hearts may thy peace which passeth understanding
abide all the days of their lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Book of Common Prayer, page 830
If you don’t see your birthday listed that means that we do not have it. Please call the office so that your special day can be acknowledged – or if we have it wrong, please let us know that also.
Other Milestones:
Marriages: Andre Gerard Paquin and Andre Daniel Laurion - May 16
Baptisms:
Lincoln Rodney Chynoweth - May 3 Isaac Anthony Gioseffi, Gwen Olivia Gioseffi, Mason William Bochinski – May 17
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GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH Noon Day Book
Group 2015-16
Join the book group for study, enlightenment, discussion, food, and an experience to be community as we explore our faith through books. We gather at noon in the Parish Library to enjoy a potluck meal and an hour or two of conversation and discussion. The current schedule involves meeting on the third Tuesday of each month except December. Questions? Email Anne Lake [email protected] We will finish out the current season on June 16 with Beautiful Ru-ins by Jess Walter. Proposed books for the 2015-2016 season include: September 15, 2015 Trash by Andy Mulligan
October 20, 2015 Until We Reach Home by Lynn Austin
November 17, 2015 End of Life Bookclub by Will Schwalbe
December 15, 2015 No meeting
January 19, 2016 All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
February 16, 2016 Felicity by Mary Oliver
March 15, 2016 Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
April 19, 2016 The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant
May 17, 2016 Wonder by P. J. Palacio
June 21, 2016 We are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas
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Trash to Treasure -- Part II
Recently, in the newspaper feature “Hints from Heloise,” a reader wrote asking how long the condiment packs from fast food places were good for. The response indicated that the packs usually don’t have an expiration date;
the assumption being that they will be used in a short time. After addressing the question, the response took a detour and suggested to the readers that they collect all their unused condiment packs and see how many they had. Heloise said that she had found a half a vegetable bin full. I estimated that much would weigh approximately 15 pounds. My guess is that much is equivalent to about $50 worth of condiments. Nancy-Ann and I also occasionally get left over fast-food condiments, but we put them in a special spot in our refrigerator and gradually use them up. To me, it doesn’t make sense to toss out perfectly good food. One other option if you have leftover condiment packs that you aren’t sure what to do with is give them to New Horizons. They can always use supplies. Likewise, when we go out to eat at a regular restaurant, we plan on bringing half of each of our meals home with us. Essentially, we get two meals out of each meal we eat in a restaurant. We find that eating half of each meal and keeping the other half for later reduces our food expenses and helps keep our weight down. Related to this is another statistic that you can find if you just go on line and Google “food waste.” What you will see is that about 40% of food in the US ends up as garbage in landfills. That is a lot of food. If only 60% of our available food is enough to feed our population of almost 320 million, then the other 40% could feed about 210 million. That’s a lot of people. Think about the millions of people in the US who are routinely hungry be-cause they can’t get enough food. Think about how that 40% of our food that is now treated as trash could be turned into a treasure.
Dick Feren
AND THOUGHTS
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What is Safe Church?
Safe church is training provided by the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire
designed to increase awareness regarding sexual misconduct and abuse of
power, to outline steps toward preven�ng abuse of power, to outline steps
toward preven�ng abuse, to offer ways to intervene when misconduct oc-
curs and to equip anyone in a posi�on of parish leadership with ways of
healing and rebuilding the body of Christ.
Safe Church training is required of all clergy, wardens, lay employees, Eu-
charis&c visitors, pastoral visitors, Stephen Ministers, EFM mentors, regu-
lar Sunday school teachers, nursery care givers or volunteers who regularly
work with children or youth, and treasurers.
If you are par�cipa�ng in any of the above named ministries you are re-
quired to have safe church training. If you have already had the training and
are up for renewal, your safe church minister, Ellen Zimmerman, will no�fy
you that you need this training.
The first step is an on line registra�on process. This process will eliminate
having to spend all day at safe church training. Please contact your safe
church minister, Ellen Zimmerman, at [email protected] and
she will set you up with a user name and password to access this process.
A refresher training is required every three years. Anyone in need of re-
fresher training is asked to take the new ini�al safe church training. Safe
church training will be offered at the following dates and loca�ons:
9/12/15 St. Paul’s, Concord 9am—noon
10/3/15 All Saints’, Li7leton 9am – noon
10/10/15 St. James’, Keene 9am—noon
10/17/15 Holy Spirit, Plymouth 9am—noon
11/7/15 St. Ma7hew’s, Goffstown 8:30—noon
A?er you have completed the on line training, email Lynn Eaton at
[email protected] to register for the second part of the training at one
of the above venues. Registra�on is open only un�l 7 days prior to training.
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Grace Episcopal Church 106 Lowell Street
Manchester, NH 03101 Tel (603) 622-9813 Fax (603) 669-6044
[email protected] www.gracechurchmanchester.org
Clergy
The Rev. Dr. Marjorie Gerbracht-Stagnaro, Rector The Rev. Richard Matthews, Associate Rector
Vestry
Linda Heath, Warden Mary Sargent, Warden Nancy Johnson, Clerk Ed High, Treasurer
Richard Feren, Assistant Treasurer
William Bochinski, Jason Carignan, Lauren Cline, Barbara Her-mann, Ann Hewins, James Higgins, Miclena Linares, Jill Porter,
Kevin von Braun
Staff Mark Cleveland, Director of Music
Ken Grinnell, Organist Carter Beck. Organist
Justin & Nicole Otto, Church School Coordinators Marlene Thompson, Parish Administrator
Jill Porter, Bookkeeper Emery Freethey, Sexton
Susan Senneville, Nursery Care Giver
Newsletter Lauren Cline
Next Newsletter Deadline June 15, 2015 (for the July/August combined issue)
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